Ex-Australia premium hard coking coal (PHCC) prices have softened this week amid lower offers and some sales in the Indian import market. But market sources believe that prices have very limited space to go down from this point, considering the rebound in the Chinese market.
The latest offer for 80,000 mt of low-volatile PHCC for August laycan has been at $174/mt FOB, down by $1/mt since early this week and $4/mt from last week. In addition, a deal for similar grade material was done at $184/mt CFR for prompt shipment.
Market sources said that there have been negotiations for high-volatile PHCC at equivalent to $176/mt FOB, but this could not be confirmed by the time of publication.
At the same time, the tradable import prices in China have increased to $165-170/mt CFR, increasing by $5-10/mt from last week. Market sources said that ex-Australia prices are still too high for Chinese buyers, but the overall improved sentiments in China may bring positive signals to the Australian export market as well. “We see talks for coke price increases partially amid Chinese coal production cut news,” a Chinese source said.